Search results

This study uses a Kaleidoscope Career (KC) approach to explore how UAE women managers experience their careers, the advancement in management and the career models they encounter.

This study employs an interpretative phenomenological approach to analyse in-depth face-to-face interviews with 22 Emirati women in middle and senior management positions across various industries in both the public and private sectors.

This research is significant in uncovering career advancement mechanisms and three career models: “my life is not elsewhere,” “seizing opportunities” and “wholehearted dedication to the country.” These models highlight women managers' pivotal role in UAE's economic development.

This study is confined to a convenience sample of women managers from Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah. While not fully representative of all local women, the findings on career advancement mechanisms and Emirati women managers' non-traditional career paths hold theoretical significance. The results challenge the uncritical adoption of Western career models, highlighting the need to consider alternative career models and advancement mechanisms.

This research expands the authors' knowledge of career advancement mechanisms and models experienced by Emirati women, offering insights for enhancing gender equality in Arab world managerial roles.

These findings open new research avenues to explore Emirati women's careers beyond the largest Emirates and assess their broader economic and societal contributions.

The UAE only officially formed in December 1971, now has seven Emirates joined together as a nation under one President. Since its establishment as a sovereign, independent country around just 50 years ago, the UAE has accelerated advancement across numerous sectors at notable speed, and science, technology, and Research & Development (R&D) sectors are no exception. Research Management and Administration (RMA) as a profession is in the relatively early stages of being recognised as a distinct and niche skill set; at present, the UAE largely imports experienced international talent to fill RMA roles. However, the country’s strides in progressing R&D infrastructure and goals of elevating ranks from regional to global R&D leader is beginning to generate a legitimate career ladder for RMA professionals across the country. This, paired with the UAE’s commitment to engage more Emirati nationals in the workforce, is cultivating a viable environment for the RMA profession to emerge more significantly from general administration and begin generating a skilled talent pipeline of RMA professionals within the UAE.

For corporate communications, it is crucial to know how news media outlets report and frame the sociopolitical activities of multinational corporations (MNCs), including their corporate diplomacy, that affect perceptions of their legitimacy. Therefore, this study aims to identify how local news media frame corporate diplomacy in a host country and, in turn, benefit the media legitimacy of MNCs.

To identify media frames in the host country, a quantitative content analysis involving factor and cluster analyses of 385 articles published in newspapers in the United Arab Emirates from 2014 to 2019 addressing the corporate diplomacy of large European MNCs operating in the country was conducted.

This study identified three media frames, two of which establish moral and pragmatic media legitimacy. Results suggest that media legitimacy grows when news media emphasise institutional relationships between MNCs and local, established organisations and corporate diplomacy's benefits for society.

Findings provide insights into how corporate communications can contribute to legitimacy building by emphasising corporations' relationships with institutional actors in host countries and the benefits of corporate activities for local communities.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study was the first in corporate communications to empirically investigate news media's role in corporate diplomacy and how media frames contribute to the media legitimacy of MNCs at the moral, pragmatic, regulative and cognitive levels.

This study investigates the relationship between talent management and individual work performance in public sector organizations and evaluates the influence of line managerial support on mediating the link between talent management and individual work performance.

Data were collected from 128 respondents working in public sector organizations in the United Arab Emirates. SPSS was used to perform multiple regression analysis to analyze direct relationships between talent management and line managerial support on individual work performance. Using PROCESS mediation analysis, this study also investigates the mediating effects of line managerial support.

The present study reveals that line managerial support insignificantly influence the individual work performance. Moreover, the findings indicate a substitution effect between talent management and line managerial support, suggesting that public sector organizations may spend their money on relieving line managers of their responsibilities for talent development so that they may focus on other duties.

More dynamic perspectives on TM in the public sector are necessary to understand better how the TM agenda changes in response to changes in the strategic trajectories of public sector organizations and the interconnection between TM and performance in the public sector.

This study contributes to talent management research in the public sector domain of developing nations by emphasizing the crucial role of line managers in applying TM practices.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the factor structure of safety culture construct among engineering students at university context and to examine the measurement invariance of this instrument across different socio-demographic groups in a sample of engineering students in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

An exploratory online questionnaire was completed by 770 undergraduate and postgraduate engineering students across the UAE. Data were analyzed using a diversified multi-group and a robust and sophisticated cross-validation testing strategy. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to test factor structures identified in previous studies. Multi-group invariance testing was conducted to determine the extent to which factor structure is comparable across groups (i.e. gender, educational and experiential background).

Three-factor model was preferred for its parsimony. The results showed that the level of safety awareness and attitude is relatively satisfactory, whereas safety behaviour is inadequate. No significant difference was showed in multi-group invariance between demographic groups.

This research is a cross-sectional study and limited to the views of engineering students (informal group). The study would benefit from both informal and formal groups in assessing safety culture at university for a robust empirical evidence. The research highlights relevant implications for policy and program development, by pointing to the need to promote safety culture and mitigate safety-related accidents among engineering students.

This paper offers insight into benefit of understanding the level of safety culture among engineering students and extend knowledge of informal group involvement in safety-related accidents at university level.

Most prior literature on the GCC workforce nationalization has focused on a limited set of themes (e.g. nationalization challenges), initiatives (e.g. quota system) and methodology (e.g. qualitative) and none has captured the full range of content associated with its implementation phenomenon resulting in our current incomplete knowledge on it. As one of the first studies on this phenomenon, our study explores the factors influencing comprehensive implementation of workforce nationalization in Qatar. We postulate a research model based on the strategic human resource and strategic management works of literature which contain five exogenous variables under three perspectives: Qatarization, organizational and environmental.

The study model was tested by using structural equation modeling (SEM) to analyze data collected from 300 managers in Qatar.

The results show that four variables –formal Qatarization planning, top management commitment, Qatarization experience and stakeholder pressures – positively influence the comprehensive implementation of Qatarization efforts.

Successfully implementing Qatarization objectives requires a robust synergy between dedicated planning and unwavering commitment from top management. Further, to effectively navigate the challenges of nationalization, collaboration with key stakeholders becomes pivotal. Our findings offer actionable insights for public organizations aiming to optimize their Qatarization efforts, emphasizing the integral role of holistic strategies and committed leadership.

We introduce a novel research model rooted in both strategic human resource and strategic management theories. Diverging from traditional qualitative approaches, our quantitative methodology provides empirical depth to our findings.

Although the development of public organisations and the continual enhancement of public services depend on the creative behaviour of public employees, it is uncertain from earlier studies how and when inclusive leadership (IL) affects innovative behaviours (IB). This study aims to resolve the inconsistency in the literature by applying social exchange theory to examine the effect of inclusive leadership on employees’ innovative behaviour, while also examining the mediating role of work engagement and the moderating effect of psychological safety within this relationship.

The research model’s analysis draws from a data set of 200 employee–supervisor dyads. Data was collected from employees across diverse public sector organisations in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The results demonstrate that IL indirectly (via WE) and directly has a positive influence on employees’ IBs. This influence is enhanced when employees feel safe and do not have to be concerned about negative consequences.

Our study highlights a less-explored sector, unveiling the motivations behind IB among public sector employees. Moreover, this study provides valuable insights within a non-Western context, offering a unique perspective on the intricate relationship between IL, PS, employee engagement and IBs in the UAE public sector.